Bizarre: Blur is about "s*** blowing up"

Project Gotham Racing mastermind Bizarre Creations reckons people go "cross-eyed" when they hear about all the features going into new racing IP, Blur, which debuts in November on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

"Blur is about intense racing, s*** blowing up everywhere, and using power-ups in a strategic way," Ben Ward, studio chatterbox, wrote on the Bizarre website. "Blur is a HUGE game."

"Frankly, it's incredibly tough to talk about all of this stuff without people just going cross-eyed (trust me, it's happened... You should see Ami right now). With all these great aspects of the game, it became pretty obvious that we needed to distil all of this stuff down into something more manageable."

Blur supports 20 drivers online and four offline by splitting one screen into quarters. As mentioned, there's a progression-based segment to the online modes. Ward promises "waay" more detail on these at a later date, but said a Destruction Derby bowl arena will be one of the options available, as will a custom race mode, where you pick the rules.

There's also a full story campaign to race through, with cut-scenes, voice-overs and heroes and heroines. Tying on and offline together will be some kind of social network, apparently, and the Kudos system is being replaced by Fans.

On top of that are around 50 licensed cars with manufacturer-approved concepts specifically for Blur, plus 14 environments spanning cities, mountains and deserts - and there is a combined 40 different routes around them. Winning conditions vary from catching a rival to placing first, and there are all sorts of stabilisers to help newcomers get to grips with the simulation driving. Oh, and you can take photos.

Blur new making a new racing IP after PGR would be "tough" and so has been iterating on the new power-up ideas "like crazy" to get the right mix. One of the benefits of being acquired by Activision, reveals Ward, is that nearly everything can be focus tested at a moment's notice, which was something Bizarre only did "sparingly" in the past.